OTTAWA, Ontario & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Turnstone Biologics, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing
the next generation of oncolytic viral therapies, today announced the
appointment of Jane Pritchett Henderson as Chief Financial Officer. Ms.
Henderson brings nearly 30 years of experience as a health care
investment banker and financial leader at several biotechnology
companies, most recently as the CFO and SVP of Corporate Development of
Voyager Therapeutics. In addition, Turnstone announced key hires across
its leadership team including: Kristin Gustafson, Senior Vice President,
Human Resources and Facilities; Steve Bernstein, M.D., Senior Vice
President, Clinical Research and Development; David Stojdl, Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President, Discovery Research; and Adina Pelusio, Ph.D.,
Vice President, Clinical Operations.

“I am delighted to welcome Jane, Kristin, Steve, David and Adina to
Turnstone and believe each will play a critical role as we continue our
relentless pursuit to bring forward important new viral immunotherapies
to patients,” said Sammy J. Farah, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of
Turnstone Biologics. “These key additions round out our exceptional team
of senior leaders and top-tier scientists. As we enter this new and
exciting phase as a company, I look forward to collaborating with Jane
and Kristin to accelerate our corporate development, and with Steve,
David and Adina to enhance our research and clinical capabilities.”

Turnstone’s MG1 virus is the first immunotherapy engineered to function
as both a systemically delivered tumor-destroying oncolytic virus and an
immune stimulating T cell vaccine. MG1 directly attacks cancer cells and
modifies the microenvironment to make tumor sites throughout the body
susceptible to targeted killer T cell responses, also induced by the
virus. Turnstone has initiated multiple Phase I/II clinical trials with
medicines targeting MAGEA3-expressing tumors, such as non-small cell
lung cancer, and HPV positive tumors, such as cervical and head and neck
cancers, and expects to have multiple additional therapies in the clinic
by 2019.

“I am thrilled to join Turnstone’s world-class team of immuno-oncology
leaders at this exciting time for the company,” said Ms. Henderson.
“Turnstone is rapidly advancing a novel pipeline of therapies based on
innovative and transformative platforms and is establishing a leadership
position in oncolytic viral-based medicines, thereby expanding the
number of patients who can benefit from these immunotherapies. I look
forward to working closely with Sammy and the team to deliver on these
important initiatives.”

Jane Pritchett Henderson brings nearly 30 years of experience in
health care and life sciences to her new role as Chief Financial Officer
of Turnstone. Previously, she served as Chief Financial Officer and
Senior Vice President of Corporate Development of Voyager Therapeutics
since January 2017. Prior to Voyager, Ms. Henderson served as Chief
Financial and Business Officer of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., having
joined the privately held biopharmaceutical company in early 2013 and
leading the sale of Kolltan to Celldex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in late
2016. Prior to Kolltan, Ms. Henderson served in various financial and
business development leadership roles at ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Axerion
Pharmaceuticals and Panacos Pharmaceuticals. In her more than 19 years
in healthcare investment banking, Ms. Henderson executed more than 95
mergers and acquisitions, advisory and financing deals, holding senior
roles at HSBC Holdings plc, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Lehman
Brothers and Salomon Brothers. Ms. Henderson currently serves on the
Board of Directors of Sesen Bio (formerly Eleven Biotherapeutics, Inc.)
and Ophthotech as well as a non-profit foundation, The EQUUS Foundation.

Kristin Gustafson brings with her more than 18 years of Human
Resources experience specific to the biotech and pharmaceutical sector
to her role as Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Facilities for
Turnstone. Prior to joining Turnstone, Ms. Gustafson was with Kite
Pharma, a Gilead company, where she led the global Human Resource and
Facilities function during a time of explosive growth and the approval
of Yescarta, the first CAR-T adult immunotherapy approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Prior to Kite, she spent four years
at Intercept Pharmaceuticals and served as the company’s Senior Vice
President of Global Human Resources and Facilities. Before joining
Intercept Pharmaceuticals, she started her own company, Chemo101, an
online portal dedicated to helping newly diagnosed cancer patients
navigate their treatment journey through the new world of cancer, and
also served in leadership roles at Cochlear and MGI Pharma.

Steve Bernstein, M.D., brings more than 20 years of experience as
a treating physician and pharmaceutical executive to his role as Senior
Vice President, Clinical Research and Development. Previously, Dr.
Bernstein served as Chair, Immuno-Oncology Translational Research and
Development, and Head, Integrated Science, at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr.
Bernstein was as an academic physician at both Roswell Park Cancer
Institute and most recently at the University of Rochester’s James P.
Wilmot Cancer Institute, where he was Professor of Medicine and
Oncology, Co-Director of both the Hematological Malignancy Program and
the Lymphoma Biology Program. Dr. Bernstein was a member of the Lymphoma
Working Group of SWOG, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lymphoma
Research Foundation, and the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of
the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

David Stojdl, Ph.D., brings more than 20 years of experience in
academic and industrial research to his role as Senior Vice President,
Head of Discovery Research at Turnstone. Dr. Stojdl has been published
in multiple leading journals for pioneering the exploration of
host-virus interactions critical to oncolytic therapy and defining the
archetypal role of interferon signaling in tumor-specific oncolytic
virus targeting. Dr. Stojdl is a professor at the Children’s Hospital of
Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and in the Department of Pediatrics and
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the
University of Ottawa. Since joining the CHEO, Dr. Stojdl discovered and
developed several novel oncolytic vector platforms, including the Maraba
oncolytic virus platform, and directed the CHEO Automated Screening
Centre (CASC). Dr. Stojdl was also a scientific co-founder and
consultant to Jennerex Biotherapeutics (later acquired by SillaJen
Biotherapeutics).

Adina Pelusio, Ph.D., brings more than 15 years of experience in
drug development, most recently as the Vice President, Clinical
Operations at SillaJen Biotherapeutics (formerly Jennerex, Inc), where
she spent a decade advancing oncolytic viruses in clinical trials. In
addition to overseeing the Clinical Operations department at SillaJen,
she managed and pioneered the medical educator role to expand hospital
personnel comfort and knowledge globally with working on these types of
agents. Prior to Jennerex, Ms. Pelusio served as a SWAT Senior Clinical
Research Associate at PPD, a large, global CRO, where she was tasked
with study rescue and served on a technology committee assigned with
developing training for CRAs and project teams on new technologies
within the field.

About Turnstone Biologics

Turnstone Biologics is a clinical-stage, immuno-oncology company
developing the next-generation of oncolytic viral immunotherapies for
patients with a broad range of solid tumors. The company's Maraba (MG1)
oncolytic virus platform is the first to combine the tumor-killing
effects of an oncolytic virus with a tumor-targeted T-cell vaccine to
harness an individual's own immune system to attack the tumor, with the
goal of preventing recurrence and delivering a cure. Turnstone is
advancing a robust pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs. In
2017, Turnstone executed the largest strategic partnership in the
oncolytic virus field with AbbVie, and was named a FierceBiotech
“Fierce 15” company. The Company’s lead investors include Versant
Ventures, OrbiMed, F-Prime Capital Partners and FACIT. For more
information, please visit http://turnstonebio.com/.